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Dear Friends,
The months Av and Elul are linked by
the common theme of introspection.
It is a time when we reflect on our service and relationship with God
and humanity.
The initiatives that are outlined in this edition of the CJF
e-newsletter reflect opportunities that YU creates for our students;
through their travels throughout the world, our students engage in the
journey of self-discovery. Over the past two months, the CJF sent
students to run four Counterpoint programs in Israel: two day-camps in
Dimona for over 150 teens, one in Arad, and a sleep
away camp in Jerusalem for the teenagers of Yemin Orde, a youth village
that was destroyed in the Carmel Forest Fire earlier this year. Our
students also interacted with the community and local Jewish school in
Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is in addition to the hundreds of people we
engaged with our summer Kollelim in communities across North America.
As I was privileged to spend time on some of these programs with our
students, I can bear witness to personal moments of self-reflection
that occurred and watched the transformation within our students. There
have been dozens of articles across the international Jewish community
on how these experiences transformed the communities and the people
with whom we have engaged. We have highlighted just a few.
Our ChampionsGate leadership conference attracted 450 leaders from 90
communities, enabling participants to develop connections with
likeminded people. The programs allowed for serious moderated
conversations and “tachlitic” takeaways about
important issues affecting our community. I find that these
interactions empower both the leaders and their respective communities
to engage in the Elul paradigm throughout the entire year.
We hope you enjoy the contents of the newsletter and, as always, your
comments are welcomed.

Rabbi Kenneth
Brander
The David Mitzner Dean
Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future

News
from the CJF

Op Ed: Another Face of
Yeshiva University There is a
narrative that Yeshiva University has shifted to the right,
religiously-speaking. I attended the recent leadership retreat
sponsored by YU’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF), an
annual get-together in Orlando, FL at the ChampionsGate resort, where I
encountered a whole other face of the Yeshiva and University that
demonstrates how that perception is incorrect.Click
for Full Article in Jewish Week

Hurricane Sabbath
Guidelines Issued By Rabbis Observant Jews are
permitted to sidestep traditional Sabbath rules on electronics and
listen to the radio as Hurricane Irene bears down on the East Coast,
according to guidelines distributed to hundreds of Orthodox rabbis.
Rabbi Kenneth Brander, dean of Yeshiva University's Center for the
Jewish Future, distributed special hurricane guidelines -- which he
originally wrote while working in hurricane-prone Florida -- to the
school's rabbinic alumni.
Click
for Full Article in Huffington Post

Bringing the Jewish World
Together, in Theory and Practice In
Orthodox shuls in more than 90 communities across North and South
America, Israel, and the United Kingdom, seats
normally occupied by key people were
empty. Rabbis, presidents, board
members and others gathered in
Orlando, Florida at Yeshiva University’s National Leadership
Conference at the ChampionsGate resort.Click
for Full Article

YU
Summer Camps Empower Israel’s YouthYeshiva
University’s Center for the Jewish Future announced that its
“Counterpoint Israel Program,” a month-long
service-learning initiative that aims to empower the next generation of
Israeli youth via an action-packed, Jewish values-driven summer camp
experience, has been retooled to allow counselors to receive credits
for their participation in the program.
Click
for Full Article

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mission
is to
shape, enrich and inspire the contemporary Jewish community by
convening the resources of YeshivaUniversity,
infusing the student
body with a spirit of leadership and a sense of responsibility to the
Jewish people and society ingeneral, building,
cultivating, and supporting communities, and their lay and rabbinic
leaders, and
creating a global movement
that promotes the values of Yeshiva
UniversityYeshiva
University's Center for the Jewish Future500
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St. Suite 419 • New York, NY 10033 • 212.960.5263
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